If it’s plugged into the internet there is a near 100% chance that the National Security Agency is monitoring it.

So how does the average American get off the control grid?

According to well known anti-virus software founder John McAfee the answer is simple.

Decentralization.

Rather than connecting to the telecom sponsored (and government integrated) internet, we bypass it completely and connect directly to each other’s devices in a peer-to-peer environment using what is essentially a distributed network architecture.

He’s been working on the new device, dubbed D-Central, for several years but has recently sped up its development in light of revelations that the NSA is tapping the digital interactions and personal correspondence of virtually every American citizen.

The new “NSA Killer” will, according to McAfee, make it difficult if not impossible for the NSA to tap into personal communications like they do today because the device would operate in what is known as a “dark web” and allow an individual to completely obscure their identity.

McAfee says with D-Central there will be no way for the government to tell, “who you are or where you are.”

The gadget, which McAfee wants to sell for less than $100, would communicate with smartphones, tablets and notebooks to create a decentralized network that couldn’t be accessed by government agencies. Specifically, it would create a small private network that would act as a “dark web” where users could communicate and share files privately.

The device would have a wireless range of about three blocks and those in range would be able to communicate with each other. McAfee has reportedly been working on the gadget for a few years but has accelerated development in recent months given the NSA leaks.

At present, he said the design is in place and they are looking for partners to help with hardware. A public prototype is expected to be ready within six months with the current device said to take a round shape with no display. This of course is assuming the project isn’t shot down by regulators before it’s ever released.

If it’s plugged into the internet there is a near 100% chance that the National Security Agency is monitoring it.

So how does the average American get off the control grid?

According to well known anti-virus software founder John McAfee the answer is simple.

Decentralization.

Rather than connecting to the telecom sponsored (and government integrated) internet, we bypass it completely and connect directly to each other’s devices in a peer-to-peer environment using what is essentially a distributed network architecture.

He’s been working on the new device, dubbed D-Central, for several years but has recently sped up its development in light of revelations that the NSA is tapping the digital interactions and personal correspondence of virtually every American citizen.

The new “NSA Killer” will, according to McAfee, make it difficult if not impossible for the NSA to tap into personal communications like they do today because the device would operate in what is known as a “dark web” and allow an individual to completely obscure their identity.

McAfee says with D-Central there will be no way for the government to tell, “who you are or where you are.”

The gadget, which McAfee wants to sell for less than $100, would communicate with smartphones, tablets and notebooks to create a decentralized network that couldn’t be accessed by government agencies. Specifically, it would create a small private network that would act as a “dark web” where users could communicate and share files privately.

The device would have a wireless range of about three blocks and those in range would be able to communicate with each other. McAfee has reportedly been working on the gadget for a few years but has accelerated development in recent months given the NSA leaks.

At present, he said the design is in place and they are looking for partners to help with hardware. A public prototype is expected to be ready within six months with the current device said to take a round shape with no display. This of course is assuming the project isn’t shot down by regulators before it’s ever released.

If true, the promise of a $100 NSA-Killer device that crushes the trillion dollar surveillance state is quite appealing and one that Americans will likely respond to with open arms should it become available on the free market. We say “should,” because there’s already talk that the D-Central privacy device may be banned in the United States because it could potentially be used for nefarious purposes.

Of course with that logic we should also ban telephones, computers, credit cards, and pretty much everything else, because criminal elements will always adopt emerging technologies for their enterprises.

The obvious, but unspoken, reason for such a ban would, of course, be that the government would lose the ability to monitor, and thus control, the American public.

According to the Future Tense Central web site McAfee’s new device will be available March 22, 2014.

The American Red Cross Safe and Well website is one way to look for loved ones; another is Google’s Person Finder.

By Suzanne Choney, contributing writer, NBC News.com

Following the confusion and panic caused by the Boston Marathon bomb blasts, websites have been set up for people to report that they’re safe, or check in on a loved one.

The best mainstream resource is the Red Cross’ Safe and Well site, where you do two things: register yourself as being “safe and well,” or find out other people’s status. Those people will have to register with the site first, of course.

Google has activated its Person Finder service to help people locate each other. The search giant has used this in the past, for both U.S. and international crises, such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake and Japan’s 2011 tsunami strike.

If you have loved ones who ran in the Boston Marathon, you can check on their last check-ins at the marathon’s website here. (A marathon enthusiast set up an independent Facebook page where some are checking in, too.) The Boston Marathon’s official Facebook page has also turned into a site to share information about what happened.

(Runners, for example, who got away from the scene, leaving their bags behind, were told on the Facebook page that “baggage claim is now open on Berkeley Street between Boylston Street and St. James Avenue. All unclaimed bags will remain secure.”

Families searching for loved ones can call this number at the Boston mayor’s office for information: 1-617-635-4520. Anyone with information about the blasts that can lead to an arrest are encouraged to call 1-800-494-TIPS, or text the word TIP to CRIME (27463).

Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It

Community : IT / Emergency Networks

Home Wi-Fi routers could operate as emergency network, say scientists

Researchers propose disaster ’emergency mode’

German researchers have proposed using home Wi-Fi routers as a backup mesh network in the event that cell and phone systems in cities and towns are overwhelmed during emergencies.

In a recently-published paper PDF, Kamill Panitzek and colleagues at the Technical University in Darmstadt in Germany describe how home routers could be linked to one another to form a huge informal backbone for use by fire, police and ambulance services.

Panitzek and his team tested the concept in the centre of Darmstadt by surveying the number, signal strength and location of routers using a sophisticated version of wardriving that was able to fix their coordinates with a high enough degree of accuracy to construct a hypothetical mesh.

The team found 1,971 routers, 212 of which had no encryption applied, and a further that used the obsolete WEP standard.

On the basis of the pattern of routers found, the team calculated that a resilient and sufficiently dense mesh network would be possible if a distance of around 30 metres between nodes was assumed.

One problem was that there were not enough open (i.e unsecured) routers which would require citizens to create an “emergency switch” mode to allow access to the number of nodes needed to create a viable mesh.

Most recent home routers can support such a system without modification as long as they allow for the creation of an open ‘guest’ network running in parallel to the user’s secured Wi-Fi access, that is firewalled from it.

“We found that with a communication range of 30 metres a mesh network could be easily constructed in urban areas like our hometown. The resulting networks showed to be resilient to node failures,” Panitzek said in the analysis.

The team accepts that there are some barriers to the idea beyond the mere density of routers available in a particular locality. Would users agree to have an open channel enabled on their routers?

A better idea might be for router makers to introduce an emergency mode into their products that users would know was fully secure, but the prospects of that look remote for now without legislation.

Mesh networks have been a buzz technology for some years and have found commercial applications. Arbua Networks launched a small meshing system for its own access points in 2011. Although a powerful idea, the technology remains on the fringes of development.

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